It’s been awhile since my last post, and by awhile I mean 2 years! We did not fall off the face of the Earth, as it might seem. In an effort to keep my blog in chronological order, to read this in chronological order you’ll need to jump down to the post: Winter 2012/2013.
Sunday, January 18, 2015
November 2014 - Quick Visit
Once again I went back to Utah for work for a week in November. This time, I made it up though! Completed since September – second triangle window was installed and the remaining 2nd floor joists had been installed.
View of the second floor from front door – this quarter of the first floor is open to the 2nd floor, which is why the joists end.
Here is that corner that has now dried out. You can see how it’s harder to get these smooth because I can’t get the right tools to fit into the opening. I have some ideas for improvement going forward, we’ll see how that works. You can also see all of the residue that we’ll need to clean up. Around the corners I basically give up on anything other than getting the chinking to stick!
Next: We’re planning on going out for another week in June 2015, more chinking to come…
View of the second floor from front door – this quarter of the first floor is open to the 2nd floor, which is why the joists end.
Here is that corner that has now dried out. You can see how it’s harder to get these smooth because I can’t get the right tools to fit into the opening. I have some ideas for improvement going forward, we’ll see how that works. You can also see all of the residue that we’ll need to clean up. Around the corners I basically give up on anything other than getting the chinking to stick!
Next: We’re planning on going out for another week in June 2015, more chinking to come…
August/September 2014 - Still Chinking...
Still needing a lot finished, Kenyon and I went out (without kids) over Labor Day weekend. A lot had happened since we’d been gone: all of the remaining windows installed (with the exception of 1 of the triangle windows in gable end), front door installed, bathroom framed in, most of the second floor joists installed.
View of Family Room from “Front” Door (The front door is really on the side of the house and the kitchen door is the small door on the front of the house.)
View of the bathroom/laundry room (framed in) from front door.
View of master bedroom area from front door.
View of the kitchen area from family room
View of the kitchen/eating area/family room from kitchen door.
Outside of valley wall (sliding door out of family room)
View of the upstairs from loft (valley side) looking out to road side (where bedrooms will be)
View from loft into open area over front door
And more chinking…
When we left in September, there was 1/4th of 3 rows left on the lake side, the front side was finished, the tent side has 2 rows left, and the whole valley side is left. We will also need to touch-up around some of the windows and do most of the corners. It seems like this will take forever!
View of Family Room from “Front” Door (The front door is really on the side of the house and the kitchen door is the small door on the front of the house.)
View of the bathroom/laundry room (framed in) from front door.
View of master bedroom area from front door.
View of the kitchen area from family room
View of the kitchen/eating area/family room from kitchen door.
Outside of valley wall (sliding door out of family room)
View of the upstairs from loft (valley side) looking out to road side (where bedrooms will be)
View from loft into open area over front door
And more chinking…
When we left in September, there was 1/4th of 3 rows left on the lake side, the front side was finished, the tent side has 2 rows left, and the whole valley side is left. We will also need to touch-up around some of the windows and do most of the corners. It seems like this will take forever!
July 2014 - Even More Chinking!
We felt like we still had so much to do when we left in June that Kenyon decided to go back over 4th of July weekend. No one else was able to go with him or help out, so he was out there by himself, but he finished the front wall and was able to finish a couple other rows.
June 2014 - Chinking!
We decided to start with the side that people will hardly ever see to test this out. Step One: Cut strips of insulation and stuff it into the area between the logs.
Next are the nails to help provide a scaffold for the chinking. The nails are put in with a modified nail gun and then have to be bent up (individually, with a hammer) to be flush with where the chinking will go. This is extremely tedious.
(Nails inserted)
(Half of this row of nails has been bent up)
We had heard from other association members that some people had used painter’s tape to help with the cleanup of the chinking, because cleaning up the drips etc. can be difficult. As people who love straight lines we wanted to try it. Spoiler alert: We decided it wasn’t worth the hassle and amount of work and tape that would be necessary.
We had a section of logs that had been cut out that we used to test out the chinking. For illustrative purposes, here’s a picture of the cross-section once the chinking has been completed.
It took awhile to get our mix just right, but we finally came up with a “recipe” that worked with our current climate conditions. If it’s too wet, it runs out or sags and doesn’t seal properly, if it’s too dry it also doesn’t seal. Once again, our friend David came out and worked with us during our experimental phase.
Once we got going, it was a 3-step process.
Step 1: Just get the material into the spot
Step 2: Push it in and sort of smooth it out
Step 3: Final smoothing. The smoothing also involves a lot of jiggling. All of these steps are using cement-type trowels. (Left side is final; right side is after step 2, but before 3.)
Some of the considerations for doing the chinking are that the color may be slightly different depending on how long it takes to dry, what the weather is like, etc. It can be a pain to add chinking to some that’s already there. So, you want to do it all at once. Obviously, it is impossible to do everything at once (when you’re working with 3 people), so our focus was on getting a whole line done and then trying to get one whole side done at once. Since the sides of our house go downhill, we needed a significant number of ladders to accomplish this. Luckily, we have great neighbors who let us borrow theirs because we wouldn’t have been able to do it with just our own.
I cannot stress enough how tedious this job is. To make matters worse, you also have to chink around the windows and around the girder log that’s sticking out. As with many of our projects, Kenyon’s responsibility is the volume work while mine is the detail work.
I started a few corners. This is a real exercise in patience. You can’t get all of it in one pass (at least I can’t) because it takes too much chinking. So, you need to do one application, wait for that to dry/harden, and then go back with more to fill in, and so on. The problem with this is varying colors and textures as it dries. In this picture the dark part is wet and just put on so once it dries, the color will fade, but may not match the rest exactly. I was only able to get a few corners finished.
What we found was that we could take this down to a 2-step process with the use of a good spray bottle. Kenyon would shove the chinking in and I would go behind him, spray it and smooth it. With just the right about of smoothing, jiggling, and pressure, you can do it in just two passes.
Another huge accomplishment of this trip was the installation of the 6-foot by 6-foot window in the upper portion of the open loft area. This is a fixed window, rather than a slider, so we couldn’t remove a pane to make it lighter. It took 5 men and scaffolding set up as steps to get it in – but it happened. I kept worrying that they were going to put it in and it would fall outward down 3 stories in front of the basement. I cannot express how grateful we are to our neighbors and Kenyon’s dad for all of the help they have given us over the years (and especially with the window!).
When we left in June, the side wall was 2/3 chinked and the front wall was half chinked.
Next are the nails to help provide a scaffold for the chinking. The nails are put in with a modified nail gun and then have to be bent up (individually, with a hammer) to be flush with where the chinking will go. This is extremely tedious.
(Nails inserted)
(Half of this row of nails has been bent up)
We had heard from other association members that some people had used painter’s tape to help with the cleanup of the chinking, because cleaning up the drips etc. can be difficult. As people who love straight lines we wanted to try it. Spoiler alert: We decided it wasn’t worth the hassle and amount of work and tape that would be necessary.
We had a section of logs that had been cut out that we used to test out the chinking. For illustrative purposes, here’s a picture of the cross-section once the chinking has been completed.
It took awhile to get our mix just right, but we finally came up with a “recipe” that worked with our current climate conditions. If it’s too wet, it runs out or sags and doesn’t seal properly, if it’s too dry it also doesn’t seal. Once again, our friend David came out and worked with us during our experimental phase.
Once we got going, it was a 3-step process.
Step 1: Just get the material into the spot
Step 2: Push it in and sort of smooth it out
Step 3: Final smoothing. The smoothing also involves a lot of jiggling. All of these steps are using cement-type trowels. (Left side is final; right side is after step 2, but before 3.)
Some of the considerations for doing the chinking are that the color may be slightly different depending on how long it takes to dry, what the weather is like, etc. It can be a pain to add chinking to some that’s already there. So, you want to do it all at once. Obviously, it is impossible to do everything at once (when you’re working with 3 people), so our focus was on getting a whole line done and then trying to get one whole side done at once. Since the sides of our house go downhill, we needed a significant number of ladders to accomplish this. Luckily, we have great neighbors who let us borrow theirs because we wouldn’t have been able to do it with just our own.
I cannot stress enough how tedious this job is. To make matters worse, you also have to chink around the windows and around the girder log that’s sticking out. As with many of our projects, Kenyon’s responsibility is the volume work while mine is the detail work.
I started a few corners. This is a real exercise in patience. You can’t get all of it in one pass (at least I can’t) because it takes too much chinking. So, you need to do one application, wait for that to dry/harden, and then go back with more to fill in, and so on. The problem with this is varying colors and textures as it dries. In this picture the dark part is wet and just put on so once it dries, the color will fade, but may not match the rest exactly. I was only able to get a few corners finished.
What we found was that we could take this down to a 2-step process with the use of a good spray bottle. Kenyon would shove the chinking in and I would go behind him, spray it and smooth it. With just the right about of smoothing, jiggling, and pressure, you can do it in just two passes.
Another huge accomplishment of this trip was the installation of the 6-foot by 6-foot window in the upper portion of the open loft area. This is a fixed window, rather than a slider, so we couldn’t remove a pane to make it lighter. It took 5 men and scaffolding set up as steps to get it in – but it happened. I kept worrying that they were going to put it in and it would fall outward down 3 stories in front of the basement. I cannot express how grateful we are to our neighbors and Kenyon’s dad for all of the help they have given us over the years (and especially with the window!).
When we left in June, the side wall was 2/3 chinked and the front wall was half chinked.
2014
In April 2014, Kenyon and I were both able to arrange our work trips to Utah at similar times, so we were there for a weekend. We knew that we would be going out for about 10 days in June (with the kids) so we wanted to take some time to determine our plan for June, determine what we needed, and review our “living” situation to determine what we needed. The plan was for me to be out a few days earlier than him and I wanted to be able to have all of the supplies ready that we needed to optimize Kenyon’s time.
Most exciting part – the floor was in! It was amazing to step into the cabin and walk around on the first floor and look out. The views were better than we had imagined.
When we returned in June 2014 our plan was to work on the exterior chinking (the “stuff between the logs”). In order to do that, we needed to have all of the windows installed. When we returned in June 2014 the two remaining first floor windows had been installed, the sliding door out to the (future) deck had been installed, the cut for the “front door” had been made, and one of the five remaining second floor windows had been installed. Plus, the contractor worked on the remaining windows while we were there.
Since one of the upstairs windows was done, we were able to climb up and look out. It was amazing. I took so many pictures! I have to share at least one, OK maybe two! When you’re looking out you will see a little bit of overhang of the roof, which we left in the picture to give perspective.
Most exciting part – the floor was in! It was amazing to step into the cabin and walk around on the first floor and look out. The views were better than we had imagined.
When we returned in June 2014 our plan was to work on the exterior chinking (the “stuff between the logs”). In order to do that, we needed to have all of the windows installed. When we returned in June 2014 the two remaining first floor windows had been installed, the sliding door out to the (future) deck had been installed, the cut for the “front door” had been made, and one of the five remaining second floor windows had been installed. Plus, the contractor worked on the remaining windows while we were there.
Since one of the upstairs windows was done, we were able to climb up and look out. It was amazing. I took so many pictures! I have to share at least one, OK maybe two! When you’re looking out you will see a little bit of overhang of the roof, which we left in the picture to give perspective.
Labor Day 2013
Kenyon was able to go back over Labor Day weekend and work with his dad. They were able to get two more windows on the sides completed. We had also worked out with the contractor what tasks he was going to prioritize. In order to do some of the things we asked, he wanted to put in the first floor to make it easier. So, that weekend Kenyon and his dad had to remove all of the scaffolding from the inside and do some other miscellaneous projects that were necessary so the floor could go in.
That closes out 2013. I actually had gone back to Utah in November 2013 for work for a week. At the end of the week I had planned to drive up and check out the progress. After a week of decent weather, the morning I was to drive up there a snowstorm came in. I still went up and made it up the highway, through the canyon and up into the “neighborhood” mountain road, but the snow proved too much for my little front wheel drive rental car when I got to the uphill, gravel road that our cabin is actually on. I tried to make it several times but it hadn’t been plowed and I was worried about getting the car stuck. I didn’t have any boots and there was nowhere to leave the car and try to hike up. So, 2013 ended without any more updates!
That closes out 2013. I actually had gone back to Utah in November 2013 for work for a week. At the end of the week I had planned to drive up and check out the progress. After a week of decent weather, the morning I was to drive up there a snowstorm came in. I still went up and made it up the highway, through the canyon and up into the “neighborhood” mountain road, but the snow proved too much for my little front wheel drive rental car when I got to the uphill, gravel road that our cabin is actually on. I tried to make it several times but it hadn’t been plowed and I was worried about getting the car stuck. I didn’t have any boots and there was nowhere to leave the car and try to hike up. So, 2013 ended without any more updates!
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